On the Job
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: Low on rent money, Harry accepts a case to help a jilted wife. Little does he know the dangers he about to put Thomas and himself in when facing another monster out for blood.
1. Chapter 1

Short two-shot that takes place some time after Dead Beat.

AN: I cannot remember why kind of car Michael drives, though I know he has one. Sorry that it's going to be completely made up.

I also don't remember the kind of relationship Thomas and Michael had, since I'm still rereading that book when I'm writing this and don't want to skip ahead so… call it AU if I got it wrong.

* * *

 **On the Job**

"Harry, you know, I never thought about it before, but have you never had a real job?"

Thomas's question wasn't the first today that irked me, but I let it go, grabbing another cart off the truck. The rent was due soon and I had to rely on one of the clients that had come to my office that I'd initially passed up in order to make the payment.

"Stuff it. I haven't needed to do anything like this before, okay? And what do you mean, _real_ job? I have a real job."

"You sit around your office, waiting for work to come to you while you read and do a lot of nothing. The only time you work you get some awful case that puts your life and the lives of others in danger and, even after you complete it, you almost never make out with the money you should. Honestly, I have no idea how you can call what you do a job."

If Thomas said more, I was already out of earshot. He didn't have to add insult to injury. It wasn't as if I got myself into those messes alone, and he was to thank for at least one of them and he knew it. Damn it, why did he have to come along?

Because, Harry, I told myself. You're no people person and you never could have gotten hired on your own.

My client this time, like most of the times I ended up falling into a case I wouldn't want to touch with a 39-½ foot pole, was a woman. She was in her thirties and her husband was a delivery driver. Her name was Marlene Tyler, and she contacted me because she'd been afraid her husband was cheating on her. I would have been surprised if he was. For a woman in her thirties, she looked in her early twenties; golden brown hair cut in some long, curly fashion that brough out the glow in her eyes. The way she sat spoke of too much formality but that was where it ended. She was just like any other woman, if not slightly more attractive than most, and even without showing off it was easy to tell she had all the right curves.

Every other detective she had hired had dropped her case. All nine of them. That was more than enough to keep certain wizards who didn't deal in marital problems away, but then she'd started crying and I'd seen the bill lying on my desk. I said yes for the money, I really did. It wasn't because my reassurances that I'd find out he was doing had made her stop crying and leave my office with a smile. It wasn't, really.

And of course I had to go to Thomas to help me get hired on and, if need be, explain why I had to sit in the back and not be near the huge engine that I could make go boom by just passing too close to it.

My brother, true to form, was doing almost no work and no one seemed to care. Even Ms. Tyler's husband, Ben, looked right passed him as if he weren't even there and passed me with the next load of beverages we were dropping off. I stopped near Thomas before taking the cap of the uniform and hitting it downward so it hid his eyes.

"You know, just standing there isn't helping me at all. If you make him fall for _you_ I'm going to have even more of a problem. Quit trying to look so damn appealing to everyone."

Thomas laughed, fixing the cap back up on his head to show off sparkling silver eyes and a smile. I noticed two girls walking by stop and look at him, even half shaded by the truck as he was.

"You know I'm not doing it on purpose. Funny it never works on you. Maybe you're just too weird to sense how irresistible I am."

"Oh, I sense it. No one can hide it from me when you're nearby. And gross, you're my brother. Why would you be able to affect me?"

"Wouldn't be the first time. We may not be able to affect one another when we're full-fledged creatures of pleasure, but we're fair game before that. You being my brother – and half brother might I add to stress even less blood – shouldn't matter at all." Thomas suddenly took my hand and looked me in the eye, drawing way too close to be anything other than an invasion of my space. "You really don't feel anything?" he asked in a voice that I'm sure had previously sent hundreds of girls to their knees.

It had no affect what so ever on me.

"Huh." Thomas let me go, eyeing me as he leaned against the truck. "You know, I was just joking before, but maybe there is something weird with you. I'm sure you've felt the allure of others of my kind, even if not from my House. Don't you feel anything from them?"

I nodded. It wasn't a great thing to admit to, but I was a man. If I didn't feel anything when something seductive was trying to seduce me, I'd be worried about my own internal workings. I'd never felt that way with Thomas though. "Maybe you're just not my type of date?" I answered, unsure as well.

"Hey! Get back to work!"

I jumped when Ben was suddenly behind me, taking another cart inside. His eyes were on me alone and I didn't miss the smirk when I turned back to Thomas, passed him, and grabbed another cart myself.

"At least I know I'm not the defective one."

Thomas gave me something to think about, after I got over the bit of anger at him just lounging around. Then again, Thomas wasn't getting paid for this, and I had never offered him anything for his help. He still owed me, but I was on shaky ground about that, as I owed him as well.

Laura had been able to… get to that part of my brain that I would rather not have controlling my actions. She hadn't been able to control me as easily as she had so many others, and I had surprised her, but I always assumed it was because I was a wizard. We weren't as easy to turn as a human, be it towards creatures of the dark or the light. We were just too stubborn.

What if there was something else though? I felt my hand go to the necklace. It had been my mother's and Thomas wore a similar one, though far less beat up and charred than my own. Maybe that had something to do with it? I knew she'd been with the White Court before I was born. I know she overcame their enthralling powers. But did that somehow change they way they got to me? I wasn't sure. It didn't sound like Thomas had been able to resist, but I hadn't been reading his expression too close when he'd used the term 'fair game'.

Thomas had always belittled himself to remain alive though. It was possible he wouldn't have fought or wanted to fight as hard as I would normally. Since he was fully grown into his powers, it wasn't as if we could test it.

"You know, Raith, you really are a terrible worker," Ben said to me as he passed. I tried not to wince. I hadn't been able to fill out the application I'd been handed without putting in a name. I sincerely hoped that Laura never found out about that. My own name was getting pretty well known around town, and Thomas hadn't faked his own, so I had figured it was the best way to go. I was sure more than the supposed bloodline had kept both of us on deliveries with Ben when only one would fit in the front of the truck with him. I hadn't asked Thomas what he'd done, but my brother had looked far too pleased when I'd been stunned to be asked along.

I went back to the truck, the job here done, while Ben nodded to Thomas. My brother hopped out of the delivery area as I stepped in, looking far too graceful, even flourishing his pitch-black hair out of his too pale face as he shot me a grin. I didn't miss Ben blink at him and not move for a few seconds after Thomas had already stepped past him before getting his wits back. He threw me a glare, slamming the door closed while I went over and sat in the only section of the truck that didn't put me in any danger of being 'that person who was crushed by a hundred bottles of cola because the driver took too sharp a turn'.

Thomas really wasn't making my job any easier and I really needed this money. I'd make near nothing, if not nothing – what with me using a fake name and all, working as a delivery boy.

There was a jerk and I slid a foot or so from where I'd been sitting, watching the bottles shake. I hit the side of the truck out of sudden anger at being frightened. "Hey, watch what you're doing!"

Then the truck stopped.

"Damn it," I cursed under my breath. I didn't think I'd been close enough to screw up the engine, but things went wrong when wizards got angry or scared or any really strong emotion flared up.

I waited, thinking it was better to let them handle it. If I got close I'd likely just make the whole thing worse. I'd done some pretty bad things to cars when I hadn't meant to. Thomas's big hunk of a tank was probably the only thing besides my own Blue Beatle that could handle me for any amount of time, and even that consisted of only a drive or two around town.

"Harry!" There was knocking at the door but it didn't open. I knew it was Thomas though. It was hard to hear but Ben's voice was deeper than my brother's that the insulation didn't matter much. "Could use some help out here!"

And how exactly was I supposed to help? I got up, opening the door to find we were parked along the side of a busy Chicago street. There were a line of cars behind the truck, going around it when we weren't moving and more than enough honking.

Of course, that was what I took in secondary. What first caught my attention was Thomas, side stepping blows and what appeared to be a small dagger of some sort that Ben was wielding, aiming to do any damage he could with it. There was a small cut through the sleeve on Thomas's uniform, pale blood staining the green of it.

"Thomas!" I had no idea what was going on but I sensed an underlay of magic. It wasn't strong but it wasn't weak either, and it was centered around Ben. Thomas easily avoided his attacks so I took a few seconds to assess the situation. I raised my hand, the shield bracelet there. I had nothing on me to focus my magic but I could at least defend myself if I had to.

The magic I was feeling was like nothing I'd ever encountered before. It was almost… demonic. I'd seen hellhounds close up and I was sensing the same feral power coming from the man now. His irises were pinpoint marks in his eyes there was a great big grin on his slightly overweight face as he repeatedly went after Thomas.

He looked like a man high off his ass on drugs and steroids.

There weren't many people who could keep up with my brother, and Ben wasn't as slim as Thomas, though they had about the same height on one another. It was one of the perks that came with being a White Court vampire. He was stronger and faster than any human, though not to the point some creatures of the Nevernever could reach. I'd gone jogging with him many, many times not to notice that I'd never be winning any marathons against him.

Yet Ben's attacks were fast, just barely missing skin. A few ripped at the uniform but no more than that. That was still closer than most could get.

So, odds were something from the Nevernever was possessing Ben and having him attack Thomas. But why? We'd only just started the job today and Ben didn't know either of us before now. No one who knew the man would associate him with us, and I was pretty sure most of the people who Thomas had made enemies with were in his own house or one of the other vampire houses. They could enthrall people but not control them like Ben was obviously being used.

"Harry, can you be something other than a bystander? If I hit him, I'll probably kill him or do more damage than I want." Thomas jumped aside, another rip showing up on the front of his shirt, the smallest trace of too light blood there as well.

"Working on it. I'm not an exorcist." This was something I'd need Michael for. I was in the same position Thomas was. If I threw any spells at Ben, uncontrolled without my staff or blasting rod to focus them, I'd likely take him out with whatever possessed him.

"Can you do something to just make him not move then? I've seen you do that before." Thomas jumped aside again. He had enough endurance that I wasn't overly worried, but he was going to ruin that uniform.

"I could but it would trap you with him, assuming you kept him still long enough for me to trap him in a circle."

"Damn it. You're so useless," Thomas shot back, ducking a punch and risking a kick to sweep out Ben's legs. It worked, the man falling to the floor but not letting go of the knife. Thomas tried to get on top of him but Ben moved to defend himself, the knife tip keeping him back as he got to his feet again, quiet dark laughed escaping his throat.

On an impulse, I stepped out of the truck and on his other side, shield bracelet up.

Ben turned to me, his smile fading a bit until he turned back to my brother, ignoring me completely.

Okay, so chalk one up to me. He was only after Thomas. That, or he didn't think of me as a threat.

More jumping and lunging and dodging started up again after that. I lowered my hand and watched, thinking. There was no way I could hold Ben down long. If his speed was already above mine, odds were the possession helped with any other faults he had as well. I could catch him in a circle, but I'd have to make it a mortal one, which could take some time and were harder than catching anything non-human.

Wait, if Ben was possess, he wouldn't be able to leave a circle with something supernatural inside of him. I could probably set one up and get Thomas to lead him to it before closing it.

I looked around at several men and women who were gathering around to watch. I wasn't sure if any had called the police, but more were walking away than staying. As long as no one broke the circle, I should be able to keep him where he was.

If I didn't catch Thomas in it as well. Being a vampire, he'd be bound by the same laws Ben's possessor would.

I drew a rather large circle on the ground with the chalk I had in my pocket. I always kept some, even when I wasn't expecting anything supernatural to come at me. Circles helped me focus my magic and I used them for my finding spells all the time.

I didn't close it as I stepped back. The opening was closer to the two brawlers. I didn't want them to smudge it by walking over it and Ben wouldn't jump to avoid chalk lines like Thomas would. I'd have to be quick and my brother would have to be quicker in order for him to run out before I had to closed.

"Thomas! Over here and be careful!" He had room to dodge out here but if he got unlucky and was stuck at close range, even Thomas's superior speed wouldn't hold long.

Thomas looked over but he was quickly distracted again, not having much time to see what I'd done. He couldn't miss the circle though and I saw him nod, waiting for another punch as he ducked and ran as fast as he could towards me. Or, as fast as he could without tapping too much of his power.

Ben was close behind him and I blinked as the man put the knife his teeth and got down onto his hands and started running like a dog after Thomas. The only difference was, a dog had much shorter back legs. Ben did not and watching him run with them bent up and throwing his butt in the air would have been funny if he didn't look like he was salivating over a knife that had Thomas's blood on it.

Thomas was faster, but only because Ben had taken the time to move the knife and change his stance. He caught up soon enough, running in that awkward position, but not before Thomas had jumped the chalk line and I finished it, putting my will into it as it snapped shut.

Then something was in my brain, pushing against my walls. It was strong and it hurt and I felt myself fall to a knee outside the circle. There was growling and snarling and darkness that were almost enough to break my concentration. I hadn't been expecting as much recoil and hadn't prepared myself for it. Whatever was inside Ben, I wasn't feeling _half_ of its power.

Thomas was by my side, letting out slow pants of breath. "Harry?" I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

" _Fine_ ," I spoke in a pained breath. I pushed back against the force, getting to my feet. I had held back worse and this thing wasn't about to get the best of me. "What the hell happened?"

Thomas shook his head as Ben went at the invisible force of my circle, scratching at it like a dog and pushing back with his power, taking more of my concentration to force him back with. Thomas must have seen me wince because he moved so he was between Ben and me if the circle failed.

"I don't know. He just slammed on the breaks. I asked him what was wrong and he pulled out the knife and started coming at me. I bailed and figured you might be able to do something." He shrugged. "And you did, kind of."

"Can you feel it?" I asked. I knew Thomas didn't have magic like I did, but he had other senses I didn't possess. "It's obviously a dog of some kind, but I've never seen someone get possessed like this before."

" _It's holy,"_ Thomas spoke in a quiet voice, putting a hand up to his arm. It was the one that hadn't been slashed and I wondered why he was holding it. " _Or unholy. Either way, its power comes from a god of some sort. It burns."_

While true love was a White Court vampire's major weakness, all of them seemed to have some aversion to faith. The Red Court held that weakness the most, being the closest type of vampire to the known world with all the common weaknesses. It wasn't just the vampire courts that were affected this way. Most supernatural creatures couldn't stand to touch anything that had faith as a backbone to it. Thomas could hold up a cross without flinching but if it belonged to a steadfast Christian who believed, really believed, I was sure it wouldn't be as simple.

"How bad is your arm?" I asked.

Thomas smiled and shook his head, Ben getting my attention by snarling and trying at the barrier again. We both waited, watching the man for a few seconds before Thomas turned back to me. "Not as bad as it feels. I'll heal."

I nodded, not questioning him. That wasn't much of an answer but I'd have to believe he was telling the truth. I watched Ben pace inside the circle, back on four legs and making sure he didn't touch the boundary of it just yet. It was small, but I could see traces of dark, black magic around him.

Which made me frown.

"What kind of holy magic uses black magic with it?" I'd never heard of such a thing but, like Thomas, I'd felt a strange type of sanctity around Ben as well.

"Well, I'm not as well versed as you in this type of thing but people believe there's a heaven in Christianity, right? And they believe theirs a hell. I've heard of Satanism before. It's a religion, if not a dark one. I can't say I know more than that about it though. Maybe it's something like that."

I wasn't as well versed on religions like that but Thomas had a point. It didn't have to be a 'good' holy creature to put itself in the 'faith' category. I used my necklace in a very similar way when it came to my belief in magic.

"And why's it after you? It clearly isn't interested in me."

"It _wasn't_ ," Thomas corrected, pointing behind him at Ben. "It looks like it wouldn't mind ripping your throat out now. What are we supposed to do with him?"

Right, we had to do something. If the police came, they would hardly take our word for it that Ben had to stay in the circle. They'd think us deranged and I didn't have time to contact Murphy. Besides, there was nothing the Chicago PD could do about this one.

"I have to call Michael," I told him calmly. "He'd be able to do something, I think."

"You think? How reassuring." Thomas pulled out his cell and sighed. "And you've killed my phone, _again."_

"Go ask one of the girls for theirs. I'm sure they wouldn't mind," I said with a cheeky smile. "I'll give you the number. Tell Michael it's me and that I need him to come out here and exorcise something evil. I can't risk losing concentration on the circle."

Thomas nodded without questing me further and went over to the crowd, smiling and talking with a few of them. I noticed them all start to laugh and one of the women blushed a few seconds later, handing over her phone. The undercurrent of fear and tension was gone, something softer and kinder replacing it. It helped relax some of the tension in me as well, though not enough for me to let my guard down with a very angry looking possessed man behind a thin wall of magic.

Thomas handed her phone back after a minute or so, taking her hand and kissing the back of it before pulling away. More than a few of them looked like they wanted to follow him back to where I was standing but apparently my face, or Ben's, was enough to have them give that idea a second thought.

"He said he was already on his way," Thomas said when he was once more at my side. "Something about telling you that calling him wasn't necessary and that _he_ looks out for this kind of thing. The emphasis on that word was his."

I snorted out a laugh. Of course one of the very few times I need Michael, someone was looking out for me and already sent him on his way. I liked when that happened, but it didn't happen nearly as often as it should. Since Michael was the 'go to' guy of this kind of thing, on any spiritual plain, it meant whatever was inside of Ben had caught attention to itself.

"I haven't seen him in a while. Not since Justine was kidnapped anyway. I don't think he really likes me."

The fact that Michael had stood beside Thomas at all, when he knew what he was, said more than enough. Then again, there were kidnapped women at the time and hurting someone who was helping was never a good idea. I wasn't sure how well he'd take to him now.

"He knows your helping me. He may not like it, but he won't attack you, not unless he sees you feeding, so try not to do that in his presence and we're golden."

"Oh yeah, I was planning on taking one of the women in the street, right here," Thomas said with a roll of his eyes. "And I'm hungry, so lets stop talking about it."

I raised an eyebrow. I knew Thomas wasn't exactly indulging himself, but he didn't usually come help me when he was hungry. It left far too many people getting far too close too fast and screwing up anything I'd been planning.

"You didn't look it before." His eyes were the telling sign. Like all White Court vampires, they were silver. They turned a near white when they grew too hungry, or were taping a lot of their power, and I'd seen Thomas's like that a few too many times to be comfortable with.

"I wasn't, not before Ben touched me. It's taken a lot more power to heal that then the stupid cuts." Thomas grabbed the part of his shirtsleeve his blood had stained and pulled it down, revealing a healed cut. "Holy power _hurts_ , and you know it, in an academic kind of way, so shut up."

"Sorry." I didn't know Thomas had used so much of his power to heal. It was likely why he was moving at his normal, superhuman speed, rather than putting on any extra help from the demon inside of him.

"I feel bad for Ben," Thomas acknowledged, his thoughts likely going where mine had at that thought. "If Michael can help him, great, but it's clear something is using him to try to get to me. I'm not sure why. I haven't made any new enemies, and don't know any I already have that use anything like this."

"It could be it's an enemy that Ben made," I said, trying to open up that path instead. My own list was so long I wouldn't know where to start, and I was pretty happy I didn't have to look into it. "Maybe it wanted him to kill whoever he was with at the time. That would have only been you. There are some spells like that, if you're in a close proximity, and this possession seems more like a type of summoning than something this _obviously_ intelligent snarling beast would come up with on it's own."

"If that's the case, I'm looking at who's to blame." Thomas leveled his eyes at me but he smiled. "You're always getting me into trouble."

"Look at it this way instead. If it _hadn't_ been you, we'd have a dead body on our hands. Maybe mine or maybe Ben's. I'm not sure how I would have reacted to protect myself."

"You can thank me later then." Thomas stretched, though I wasn't sure if he needed to. It looked good and there were more than enough eyes on him. "Oh, by the way." He tipped his head and looked at me. "I think my own powers don't work so well on you because I really don't want them to. I was thinking about it before Ben went nuts on me."

"You can't control them though, right?"

Thomas nodded. "That doesn't mean I wouldn't do some pretty bad things that I wouldn't like if something happened to you because I distracted you by looking so appealing." He smiled, his light eyes on my dark ones. We really looked very little a like, though it was there, in the shape. "I'm sure you'd feel terrible if something happened to me because of something you did too."

It wasn't a question and Thomas didn't have to make it one. He knew how much having a brother out there mattered to me, and Thomas wasn't a bad guy. If he had been, brother or not, I would never have let him so close.

A white Honda minivan pulled up, too new for me to want to step near on any given day. Out of it came Michael Carpenter, his sword, Amoracchius, clearly unsheathed and at his side. The broadsword was enough to have some of the people who had been lingering step back and away from him as he made his way over to Thomas and me.

Michael stopped, the sword glowing white and letting out a small sound that was hard to hear over the Chicago traffic. He eyed Thomas, who eyed him back, though neither showed any hatred towards one another – just a steady undercurrent of worry and trust issues. I sighed and stepped over to Michael, showing off Ben who was once more clawing at the barrier, only on the opposite end now.

"Thanks for coming. Our driver suddenly decided to go all possessed on us when I wasn't expecting it."

Michael relaxed slightly and stepped forward with a nod. He had no smile on his face as he went over to the circle, stepping around it and careful to not break it. Where Ben could not, Michael very well could break through it with something as simple as an untied shoelace.

Ben didn't move other than bend down on himself and start to quiver as Michael made his way around. I watched the knight place the sword on the very edge of the circle, bending his head forward and murmuring words that I couldn't possibly hear. Ben sank further down into the ground until it looked like he was trying to merge into it. After a few seconds, I noticed a white glow start around Michael's frame and he reached his hand out. I felt the magic of the circle snap around me like a twig, an audible sound similarly accompanying it and the pressure in my head now gone. He placed a glowing hand on Ben's head, bending down towards him.

Then Ben's features started to relax and I watched his eyes close as the white light started to envelop him for a few seconds as well before winking out when the man fell unconscious.

Michael went to one of his knees and rubbed Ben's arm for a few seconds before standing up and coming over to us.

"That's the first time I've seen something like that. It felt very foreign to me, and it was full of pain and suffering. Whatever the creature was, it was not here willingly, and it was very angry."

I nodded. "It was holy."

Michael shook his head. "Not something that I'm familiar with," he repeated. "I could ask Sanya if he knows anything about it though. He's traveled more than I have, but not by much. What was it doing here?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea. I was only here because our friend Ben here has a wife that thinks he's cheating on her. I wasn't expecting to run into this kind of thing."

"And yet you brought him." Michael turned back towards Thomas who stiffened slightly.

"To get hired. It's not easy for me to get a job, you know," I clarified. Michael wasn't any better at talking to people than I was and telling them it was a holy mission from God to save the sanctity of someone's marriage would never have flown with any company.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. He looked back towards where Ben was lying, looking sound asleep. "He should be better now, but there's nothing I can do to keep him from being used by evil again. It has already touched him once, and next time will be even easier.

I nodded. Following Ben around didn't seem like it was going to be the cakewalk of a job I'd signed up for. Telling his wife that some sort of holy evil spirit likely possessed him, and might do so again, would have me fired. I could lie and say I'd found something, but I had never done that before, and I wouldn't now.

"I'm not getting paid for this, am I?"

Thomas and Michael both smiled at me. "There is no need to get paid for doing good in this world, Harry," Michael spoke all saintly.

"Yeah, and tools don't come cheap. Why do you think all the bad guys are rich? I just like to have an even playing field."

"The lord will give us all we need to accomplish his work."

Yeah, maybe Michael, but I was pretty sure the big guy didn't like me enough to make sure I had food and clothes every day, let alone a place to stay. The only person looking out for me was me, and I'd rather have something I could hold in my hand.

"Harry, if you don't need me anymore, I think I'm going to go home." I turned to Thomas when he spoke, seeing his eyes too white and a stiffness to his posture. I wasn't sure if I wanted to send him back that way, but he had helped and there really was nothing he could do right now.

"Think you can get Ben in the truck for me before you leave? I don't know of the police are going to show up, but it's better he doesn't get trampled anyway." We could all probably lift him, but Thomas would have a much easier time of it, and it felt strange asking Michael to do something so simple.

"Sure, as long as he's not going to bite my head off the second I get close to him again." Thomas went over to the truck, opening the back door first before going over and picking up Ben. He put him in the back, laying him down as comfortably as he could on a metal floor. "I'll call you after I get some rest or something," Thomas added vaguely, not walking back towards me and heading to his house. He probably didn't want to pass Michael again.

"Thanks for your help, Thomas." I would likely need it again, and Ben had all the more reason not to want to be near me. I could tail him, but this way was much easier and if he was going around, slashing at whoever was riding with him next time, I didn't want it to be some poor soul that didn't know what they were in for.

"I'll talk to Sanya," Michael said as he sheathed his sword. I didn't miss the fact that he waited until Thomas was gone before putting it away. "I'd recommend you take your friend there to a church, to make sure it doesn't happen again. He needs to recover."

"I would if I could but I can't," I admitted. "He's not my client and he wouldn't listen to me in any case. I'm not about to get fired because he tells the bosses I'm crazy. If it happens again, I'll be here." But then, what if it happened at home, with his wife? Did they have children? I leaned against the side of the truck. "I don't suppose giving him a cross to wear will help any."

Michael shook his head. "Not unless there's faith behind it, Harry. You know that. You can talk to him about it though. Perhaps his is more religious than you think. I have to go. Charity thinks I'm picking up the kids right now, and I really am. I don't want to leave them waiting too long."

I laughed and shooed him again. "Go on. I'd be more afraid of her than any demon."

"You and me both," Michael agreed before heading back over to his minivan that had barely enough room for his family.

I was left to sit there and wait for Ben to wake up, happy that the people had on the street must have thought we were shooting a movie or something. Or at worst, didn't care. Right now I was good with that, though it made me unsure of where this city was going to go if everyone in it turned their heads away from what they saw.

"Ow," were Ben's first words as he put a hand to his head and tried to sit up, obvious aches there followed by more 'ow's'. "What happened?"

"You passed out," I lied on the fly. I wasn't very good at lying but Ben still looked half asleep. "Thomas was able to take the wheel and pull over. He said it scared him though and he wanted to go home for the day. I wasn't sure if you needed an ambulance. Are you feeling okay?"

"I think so." Ben rubbed his head, mussing his hair in an unappealing fashion, grease or sweat making it stand up. "I've never passed out before."

"Maybe you're tired or hungry. We can take a break and get back to work after. I'm sure the bosses will understand." There was no way I was letting him behind the wheel of that big truck right now and I couldn't drive it. Thomas probably could have but I'm not sure I would have liked what would have happened in the cabin if he'd stayed.

"Yeah, food doesn't sound that bad." He looked around at where we were and I decided that was a pretty good idea. Going a few feet down the street it looked like we were illegally parked on the corner of North Orleans Street, in Old Town Chicago. Division was still a few lights up but there was still far too much traffic to stay here.

And of course there was a Church not half a street away. It was a work day and there didn't seem to be many cars in the lot.

"We can park in there and if anyone asked we can tell them there was an accident." The police were going to get called if we stayed here anyway. I was pretty sure no one was going to care if there was a truck in their lot for the next half an hour or so.

"Yeah," Ben agreed, far to easily. He still seemed out of it as he got out of the back of the truck. "Sounds good to me. I think I might just call in and have someone pick up the rig. I don't want to risk passing out again."

I didn't want to be alone with him either, so I hurriedly agreed as I took his spot in the truck as he moved it across the street, taking up a third of the parking spots there. Being a nice guy short on rent as I was, I paid for my own food and kept Ben company for a while. He was still shaken up. I'd never been possessed before but I was pretty sure the aftereffects weren't the nicest things in the world.

We parted ways after and I had to call Murphy to come pick me up. She hadn't called me for a case in a while and I wasn't about to call Michael back, and I knew Thomas was busy.

"Dresden," she spoke tersely, with just a hint of laughter, as she reached over and threw open the door to her small Saturn. "What in the world are you wearing?"

I looked down at the green work outfit I still had on, touching the cap on my head and taking it off. I really didn't like hats all that much. I got in and tossed it in the front of her windshield, where it wouldn't impede her vision. "What?" I asked. "Don't like me in green?"

"You're certainly ruining that image I have of you," she answered back, shifting the car back into park. The noise it let out when she did made both of us wince. "Remind me why I'm picking you up again?"

"I don't have money for the bus," I said honestly. "And I left my car back at my place."

"You're still not telling me the real reason I'm picking you up. I doubt your date left you stranded in the middle of the city."

"I wish." If that had happened, there was no way I would have called Murphy though. "If only my life were that simple. I'll call client confidentiality for now. Don't worry, Murph. It's nothing on your side of things."

"You say that now but if I find you were involved with something or someone's dead and it has something to do with you, I'm not going to be happy."

I shrugged. I wasn't planning on letting Ben die or anything, but I was worried about Marlene Tyler as well now. If I had a way of warning her, which would be great, but she'd never believe me as things stood now. Ultimately, her husband wasn't doing anything wrong, or if he was, I had bigger issues to deal with at the moment. The first thing I'd have to do was find out what possessed him, and Michael was my best option there. If it attached itself to Ben the next time I was around, I'd make sure I was prepared and I could force it to show itself.

"Dresden," Murphy snapped, drawing me out of my thoughts. "That won't happen, right?"

"Of course not," I assured her. "I haven't even finished my investigation yet or I might be able to talk to you. I can tell you that there is a husband and wife out there that don't seem to be hitting it off as well as they used to and maybe there might be something with said husband that made him go Chucky on me just now. I don't think it will happen again and no one's hurt." Thomas had been but I was pretty sure he wasn't hurt anymore. "Right now, the police don't know who he is and I'd like to protect him so they'll never have to."

"There's a man out there who just randomly attacked and, by the sound of it, tried to kill you, and you don't think that's police business?"

"He didn't try to," I corrected her quickly, hearing how angry she was getting. "Something got inside of him and was doing it. And it didn't go after me, it went after Thomas."

Murphy frowned. "Thomas? The vampire?"

I nodded. Murphy and Thomas hasn't been around each other much and, with the way most women looked at him, I think we were both happy they didn't have to meet that often. "I needed his help to watch someone. Rents due soon and I wasn't expecting this."

Murphy sighed. "I'd help, but there's nothing that's come in lately, and to be honest, I don't like using you as much as I could."

Her words stung a bit but I knew what kind of position she was in. Her job wasn't easy and her superiors didn't like to believe there were really things out there that could tear apart people in the way both of us had seen, so they liked to pretend it never happened and called any funds their department had a waste of money.

"I know that." She still called me in whenever magic was involved, whether they wanted her to or not, so I knew there just wasn't anything going on right now. I'd never forsake a calm month again, even if it meant I had to take on cases like this. I didn't need her help on this either, or I'd ask her for it. Murphy was the easiest of my 'most of the time' friends to talk to, and the best one to get at the last second when I finally did make that call.

She dropped me off in front of my house, giving me a few last warnings that I'd better know what I was doing, before driving off. I thank her and wondered if I took her away from work. She hadn't said anything about what she was doing when she'd picked me up.

Inside my dark and cozy basement apartment, I stopped for only a few second to pull open the trap door before going into my lab. I'd have liked to do something more productive, maybe follow Ben around, but I'd gotten some of his hair while he'd been out and I could track him later if I needed to.

Bob's eye lights were dim. I had to knock on the counter a few times to get his attention. "Hey, Bob. I need your help here."

The skull made a yawning noise, moving a bit where it was set on the shelf. "When do you not need my help? I'm like your personal Wiki."

I turned my head to him and frowned. "Wiki?"

"Never mind," Bob retorted. "So, what is it you need today? Please tell me it has something to do with women."

"Afraid not," I said, sitting down in my own chair and taking out my notebook. "I just ran into something I've never seen before. I was hoping you could give me a few guesses at what it was." I trusted Michael but if anyone knew something about every form of evil out there, it was Bob.

"Alright, alright. Give me the details. I'll see what I come up with. You owe me though. I was in the middle of something."

"Bob, you live in a skull. What could you be in the middle of?"

There was laughter and the skull rattled slightly against the wood. "More than you've been up to in the last decade or so. Go on then, ask away before I get bored."

"Right. I think I'm dealing with some kind of possessing spirit. Something from the holier than thou side of things. It uses black magic though. I've never heard of a spirit doing that."

There was a sigh, though Bob had no breath. "Harry, Harry. The things you don't know could fill books, libraries. The main reason people like you don't hear of evil gods are because, once gods fall, they stop being gods. You call them demons, and you've run into a few of those before. There are some parts of the world though that do not believe in demons, only spirits, and they are holy whether they are good or evil. China and Japan are the areas with those types of beliefs, though Buddhism, Hinduism, and others have some gods of power that are more towards your version of evil in the wrong light. If you're dealing with a god though, you're on your own. Nothing I could say could help you fight off one of those."

I shook my head. "It wasn't smart enough for that. It kind of acted like a dog."

"A dog?" I could sense the curiosity in Bob's words, though he had no facial expression. "Sounds more like a familiar to me, Harry."

"A familiar? You mean like those old stories where wizards keep an animal at their side?" We might have in the past too. I was never sure and I'd never cared to ask Bob. "But this was a spirit and, like I said, it was holy."

"And, but Harry, a wizard can take on any kind of familiar they want. If they know how to work the magic, they can bewitch anything. Knowing something's true name works too, but it's not the same thing. As long as you remain in control, you can summon a spirit as a familiar for a short period of time."

"I'm lost." I had written down a few words but there was some bigger point I wasn't getting.

"That doesn't surprise me."

I didn't tell him to shut up. "What's the differences between a summon and a familiar?"

"A summon is usually done by a wizard. What the wizard calls upon my very, but most summons in this world are done to call demons. Once here, the demon is only in this world until it is killed. It has full reign of itself and can do what it wants unless sent back by a wizard. Think of it as having a pit bull on a very thin leash."

I nodded. I knew enough about summons to know that. I'd summoned a few demons myself. "And a familiar?"

"A familiar," Bob continued. "Is typically bodiless. They are spirits, either of the earth – such as creatures or sometimes even of trees and the like that live long enough to have one of their own. Sometimes they're spirits from the Nevernever. Obviously the later is much more powerful. Unlike a normal summon, familiars bond to their summoner and there is no risk of losing control of them once they're set out do something. They simply do it and return. If the person wants to use them as their familiar again, they'd need to redo whatever ceremony they had used the first time, and hope the spirit does what they wished. For a familiar, it's more like flipping a coin. If you flip wrong, things go wrong. Usually the person doing it ends up dead."

"What's with all those stories of black cats and witches then?" I asked.

Bob tutted. "Summoned familiars trapped in the body of animals. It's a dangerous game, if they do not want to be there, and a lot of the people who tried it did not live to regret it. Most summoned familiars tend to be on the tamer side though, as they were originally animals of some sort. A few truly do want to work with humans, but now a days you don't find many who know the names of these spirits or how to call them. This area isn't big on its animal spirits."

"Wait, wait. How does that make them holy?" I wrote down a few more notes, realizing Bob had never explained that part.

"Not all of them are. The few that would be considered in that category are closer to demons and they need something larger to be preformed to call them here. You can't miss that kind of thing when you see it. Usually it involves a lot of blood, mostly from different types of animals, depending on what you're summoning. The person creating the ritual treats them like a holy creature and ends up giving them they power, even if they didn't have it before."

"So they're only really dangerous if there's a summoner somewhere to call them. Most of these spirits don't act on their own, right?'

"Harry." There was another sighing noise. "Like I said, most were originally animals. Animals are not like you humans. They do not go out seeking to destroy anything. They come and they go, depending on how strong they are. There are some out there that obtain more power and do linger, but again, they are more animal than human. They'd have no reason to attack anyway. That's why I think your dog spirit there is a familiar. Someone would have to be making it act that way. Only humans have that kind of hatred in them."

I couldn't say he was wrong. I knew first hand how dark human nature could be, but I also knew how good and kind it could be as well. "There are all kinds of people. Okay, so how do I stop this thing?"

"A few ways. A magic circle is one. It's an animal spirit, but a spirit nonetheless. That should keep it still. Another would be to banish it, but you'd need holy power to do that, and I think you're a little short on that. The third…" Bob thought for a few moments before answering. "Would be some sort of spell for sealing the spirit away. I don't recommend that one though. It's better to just banish the spirit than risk it getting out again later."

"I can't destroy it?" It was a spirit. I wasn't really worried about killing something that wasn't alive anymore.

"Afraid not. Spirits of this kind can lose or gain power, but you can't destroy them completely. Let me correct that, _you_ cannot destroy them. There are a few in this world that still have the means to, but no one you know."

I sighed and stood up, scratching my head. "So I'm dealing with some type of holy dog spirit that was summoned here my someone and is at their beck and call until I can do something about it. Short of finding someone's front yard covered in animal blood, this isn't looking easy."

"Oh, right." Bob's eyelids had started to fade out again before he remembered something. "You said dog. I'd watch out for those. Dog spirits are incredibly loyal to their summoner, just as normal dogs are. They won't always leave after they are banished or their summoner dismisses them. What kind of encounter was this you had? I don't see any dog bites."

"It took over a man I was with and, thankfully, went after Thomas long enough until I was able to trap it. I called in Michael and he exorcised it or banished it or whatever."

There was a whistling noise. "It took over a person. Well now, Harry, you should have told me that. A spirit has to have a lot of power over it to take over someone, unless they were already susceptible to it. You said something about black magic too, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"Well then, it should like you're dealing with something Asian. There are a few ceremonies I know for dog spirits, or demons if you want to call it one. The most well known of those possess people and drive them mad. They also have about as much black magic as Black Court vampire. You were lucky. You must have run into something that didn't have a strong summoner behind it. If I were you, I'd watch my back." Then the lights winked out and I was left in the quiet of my basement.

"Thanks for telling me what to look for," I snarled quietly under my breath. I went back up the stairs, not sure what I was supposed to do now. I could tail Ben, but I wasn't sure what good it would do. I could always phone Michael and tell him what I figured out. Maybe we could find some why to repel spirits from the Tyler's house at least. I would have needed Bob's help for that though and it looked like he was done giving me any.

Why did my jobs always have to be this way?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Making up more car and interaction stuff if I'm wrong. Forgot what Murphy drives too. Also making up some variation words for the wind spells to specify what they do because I can't remember

* * *

Thomas called me in the morning, telling me we were working again. I didn't like getting near a computer so I had to rely on him to relay the times to me. I drank a cola and got dressed before waiting outside for him, getting picked up in his showy vehicle. The Blue Beatle may not be able to crush other cars like Thomas's, but it didn't need the muscle to prove it's worth.

"Sorry about yesterday." Thomas turned to me as he fiddled with the radio, turning the sound off when it turned into static. "I'm better now. So, what are we going to do? This doesn't look like a simple 'follow the leader' job anymore."

"It's not," I sighed, waving my hand. It was too early for me to really be awake and the sun hadn't come up all that long ago. The chill Chicago air wouldn't warm up until at least seven. "I still haven't figured out why they were after you, but it could have been a coincidence. The rest I've got pretty nailed down, if not a 'why'."

"Okay, so what's going on?" Thomas asked again.

"We've got some type of dog spirit who's being summoned by someone somewhere for who knows why and it's going to be driving Ben mad if we don't do something." Saying it aloud, I knew I'd have to look into the people who knew Ben. "If they were after you, they'd probably of had it try to possess me instead, and the same if it were someone after me. We're both better targets, even if we can resist it better."

"Where's he live? Maybe we should check up on him. It's not like he doesn't work when we do." Thomas kept driving, reaching a hand into the back seat and grabbing a small brown paper bag. He threw it to me. "Here."

I opened it to find two donuts, a normal one with white frosting and a chocolate one filled with cream. I bit into the chocolate on and closed my eyes. "You're a life saver."

"Aren't I? Sorry I didn't pick up any coffee too. This big guy isn't good with bumps."

"I'll grab some later." The breakfast was good enough for now. I looked at the clock, seeing the display had already winked out, before looking over at Thomas for the time. He drew out a watch, one with actual hands on it, far less likely to go haywire around me, and told me we still had forty minutes. It wasn't much time to have a look around his house but there might be clues there and I knew Thomas would get us out of any trouble for being late if we had to be.

Thomas pulled into a small suburb ten minutes North of Wrigley Field. There were rows of apartments, very few of them sharing similarities. The one thing that seemed to remain constant was there were two floors above ground. The color, layout, and design of the front yards all varied.

Thomas stopped in front of one that had no fence in front of it like the neighbor on either side did. There were a few bushes around the overly large front windows that wouldn't block out any of the sun. It wasn't as large as the complex on the left of it, which had a third floor, but the windows weren't broken and the grass and bushes were trimmed.

I got out after Thomas found a parking spot on the other side of the road, taking up more of the street than he probably should be. We didn't get more than a few feet from the car when Thomas held a hand over his nose and took a step back.

"Aw, Harry. What _is_ that?"

I sniffed the air but all I could pick up was the scene of the trees and the spring. Some of the flowers nearby were blooming which helped mask anything else as well. "I don't smell anything."

Thomas looked around, a bike chained to one of the signs that were in front of the Tyler's apartment. The walkway was on the side of the building instead of in front like most of the others, and I could barely make out a black bag that caught my brother's eyes.

When Thomas made no move towards it I let out a breath and went over. We were coming here to look around, not staying at the car. The garbage couldn't smell _that_ bad if I couldn't pick up on it.

I opened the bag, looking in for a bit and holding in my own breath. The bag wasn't that heavy because it wasn't full. After I had a good look I closed it back up and went over to Thomas. I had had to take a breath at the sidewalk and caught a whiff of death that must have followed me.

"It's just a dog." I looked back over at it. "Must have died a few days ago. It's hard to tell what color its fur had been."

Thomas wrinkled his nose but had let it go and been breathing through it for some time, apparently far enough away. Even he needed air. "So we have a dog spirit and now a dead dog. I'm sensing a connection."

I nodded. "Its head's been cut off."

"That would do it, wouldn't it? Heck, if I were that dog, I'd be mad too. Did Ben do it or did someone else find a way to sic a dead dog on him?"

"That's the question, isn't it? Think you can go ask around to who had the dog?" I'd do it, but people always spoke to Thomas. It would be much easier this way, and there'd be fewer questions like 'why'. That was, as long as he didn't go inside with any of them.

"I think you should do it and I should pick you up later. Ben's not here. I don't see his car."

Right. I had to go watch Ben as well, to make sure he didn't get possessed and kill someone. "Go. I'll snoop around. Call me in sick or something."

Thomas grinned and waved over his shoulder. "You investigate the dead dog. I'll sit and not work and watch for the bad guys. I wish you had a phone. If I start dying or something, I'll just scream like a little girl until you show up."

"I shouldn't be that long. Come back in an hour or two. I'm sure you can talk Ben into coming to get me. I'll walk to the main road so it's easier."

My brother nodded a bit, not moving. He shifted to his other foot, looking a bit uncertain. I raised an eyebrow but he just shifted again. "What is it?"

"I don't know. I feel like we should probably stick together. You can do stuff on your own here but I'm pretty screwed if Ben goes crazy on me again. I don't want to kill him and I have a feeling if he's possessed, broken ribs won't stop him."

Thomas had a point. He'd also be the one better off here and finding information. In an ideal world, I'd go protect Ben and he'd investigate.

The downside was that Thomas's car would never let me drive it and I'd never make it to work on time calling a cab or waiting on the bus, even if I had money for either of them.

"Fine," I sighed. "Lets go. I don't think the neighbors are going anywhere and you can always ask Ben if he has any dogs. That's something."

Thomas nodded and got back in the car, turning the key and hearing the engine click a few times before it started. I got in as well and shut the door, looking at the house. I didn't feel any 'evil' coming from it, but the place didn't feel all that nice either. Maybe that was the kind of trace this sort of spirit left or maybe it was just another Chicago house that had seen too much.

Once more I was in the back of a truck, hiding my staff near the doorframe and my blasting rod not far from it. This time I was going to be ready, and if I needed to fry some hairs to get Ben to sit and stay like a good boy, so be it.

The man didn't look so good. It'd noticed in the few seconds I saw him before being yelled to get in that his was paler than before, his eyes slightly bloodshot. He was a man who clearly hadn't gotten a goodnight sleep, his hair rattier than ever.

I also noticed as I sat there that I'd forgotten my cap in Murphy's car. Thomas had had his and Ben had been too tired to notice that I'd been missing mine. I'd have to pick it up later, or let her keep it. It looked like I was going to give Marlene Tyler the good news that her husband wasn't cheating on her if this kept up.

I honestly hadn't been expecting a repeat of yesterday. The bad guys just didn't hit you with the same trick twice in a row. I still slid forward though, catching my staff when it tried to brain me, and feeling a truck jerk to a sudden stop. We hadn't even made it to our first delivery.

"You've got to be kidding me." I opened the door, keeping my staff with me. My rod had rolled somewhere in the truck and it was too dark to find right now. I looked around, hearing another vehicle honk in anger, a few of them stopped with men getting out where they'd obviously had a collision. I looked around before jumping down, not letting go of the side of the truck until I was sure it wouldn't be taking off on me.

Thomas was slow to exit the cabin but his door opened and he fell out more than stepped. He went head first, flipping in just the few feet from truck to ground, landing with an animal's grace on his hands and one knee. He turned and saw me, running towards me and almost tripping when Ben came out right after him, just missing grabbing his leg, though not missing slicing it with a very similar knife to the one he had the other day.

"You didn't even make sure he wasn't armed?" I asked him, half angry and half surprised that Thomas was so sloppy.

"If you hadn't sidetracked us, maybe I would have had time." Thomas blinked a few times, stopping behind me for a few moments while he got himself together. His eyes were very white and I noticed his breathing was strange. There was a mark on his chest where he'd been stabbed, likely the cause for his labored breaths.

"Christ, Thomas, get in the truck."

Thomas listened to me, hoping in the back of the truck. He closed the door as I watched Ben, pacing just outside of the front door and on all four legs against with the soiled knife in his mouth.

"And find my blasting rob while you're in there!" I held my staff in front of me, having to do with it for now. It could still focus my energy the same way my rod could. " _Ventus Retinui,"_ I muttered under my breath, feeling the staff shake slightly. It took a few moments more for the wind to come, slamming Ben into the side of the truck and holding him there for a little while, the man struggling against his invisible attacker. I drew the chalk out of my pocket, no idea how to banish a familiar, and started drawing it around Ben. I'd simply have to overpower it, or it's summoner's magic, and do things that way.

Unless I circled the whole truck there was no way to close the circle without going around Ben, and that meant changing the direction of the wind. I had half the circle drawn and held my staff in front of me. " _Ven-_ "

Ben broke through my magic. I wasn't sure how. I hadn't felt the building of his own but in a second, the wind was just gone, and Ben was jumping at me. I yelped, trying to take a few steps back, but I'd been too close to him. Ben was on top of me, pinning my arms down with his own, and I could feel his drool fall down on my cheek.

"Get off!" I yelled out, building up my magic again in pure force this time. My ring was on my finger and useless to me, but I could release the same type of magic without it.

Ben was faster and I felt teeth on my throat before I could get the words out. It hurt like hell. The dog spirit or whatever it was must have been expecting to be able to bite with a wider mouth like it normally could. Instead it was left with dull teeth and a few inches bite range. It was still enough to crush and tear at my skin but I was able to get a leg up and knock the creature off of me.

I was only free a few moments, raising my shield bracelet from any further attacks, feeling a barrier spring up between us. I put my hand to my throat, feeling the blood run down it and stain my shirt.

Ben paced on four legs just around the barrier, watching me as I drew my staff towards myself. I wasn't sure what kind of spell I could use on him to keep him still without hurting him, but at this point I was willing to accept some collateral damage.

Then he was gone.

I blinked, looking around. Ben had moved far faster that I had seen him move before and I could just catch sight of him turning the corner of the truck and trying to get at the door. As a dog and without the knowledge on how to use its hand, or not bothering to, the creature used it's shoulder and started banging the door in.

"Crap," I muttered, dropping my shield. The thing was just too damn fast for me to trap in a circle. I had Thomas's help the last time, because it wasn't interested in me, but alone I couldn't keep ahead of it. I wasn't any good with earth magic and the streets were lined with concrete so my only option was wind magic again. I'd have to close the circle fast and hope he didn't break passed the spell before I was ready for him.

Walking passed the truck, I lined myself up with the car behind it, seeing damage to the front where Ben had pulled over suddenly and with little care if there were other vehicles in the way.

" _Ventus Coegi Cubere_ ," I muttered, making sure I had the chalk in my hand. The spell took all of a few seconds to cast and I felt the wind come.

Then I felt something really hard hit me in the back of the head. I stumbled forward, seeing Ben turn towards me when he noticed I was there. Then I passed out.

…

"Harry?"

"Ow," I murmured, putting a hand to the back of my head. It came away with blood and I blinked at the female voice. "Murph?"

"You idiot." She let me go and my head hit the cement I was apparently still laying on.

"Ow," I yelped again, trying to stop the world from spinning. After a few second I realized that wasn't going to happen and sat up anyway, blinking my vision clear.

"What happened to being able to take care of this yourself?"

"I thought I could. What happened? Why are you here?"

"A fight broke out in the middle of the street. Why do you think I'm here?"

Right. I looked around. The truck was still in front of me, the door pried open. I didn't see Ben anywhere, but I didn't see Thomas either. "What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. When I got here I found some blood and you passed out."

"Shit," I swore as I got to my feet, swaying and having nothing to catch myself with as I stumbled. "Thomas."

Murphy didn't ask what was wrong and I went to the front of the cabin, looking inside. I didn't care what happened to the truck anymore, and it was turned off anyway. I found what I was looking for in a few seconds. Taking out a handkerchief, I wiped away some of the blood that was too light to be Ben's off the seat. I took my pentacle necklace off, tying the cloth to it as I bent down and closed a circle around myself. It only took me a few seconds to gather the energy and speak a few quiet words, breaking the circle.

The finding spell started working right away and my necklace glowed, pulling towards one direction like a pendulum. The blood would dry soon and it would be useless, but for now it would help me find where Thomas went.

I stopped before I got far down the street, realizing that walking was stupid. Thomas was a vampire. He could keep up with a car. Who knew how far he went or how hurt he was. "Murphy." I expected to have to run back to her but turned and almost tripped when she was right behind me. "Can we use your car?"

She looked from me to the moving necklace. "You're not going to break it, are you?"

I wasn't sure. The Blue Beatle had never acted any differently while I'd had a finding spell active than if I had just been sitting there. The magic they took was little and subtle. I shook my head. "It shouldn't."

"Fine." She turned and I followed her back to her little black Saturn, getting in and hoping I was right. My own car was older and could take more than her '09 could. The car started so I stopped worrying after that.

I directed Murphy as best I could. Finding spells were fickle that way. They didn't follow roads, pointing the most direct route to what I was trying to find instead. The blood started to dry before long and the signal kept falling out. I wondered, briefly, if I could pick up his trail somewhere.

The direction kept changing towards the end, the pulls slighter, telling me we were close. I stopped trying to keep the spell together and slid the cloth in my pocket, putting the necklace back on as I stepped out with my staff in hand. I looked around. I wasn't sure where we were but it was near the highway, large buildings on one side to me, a more incorporated part of the city, while apartment buildings and construction lined the other. It looked like they were trying to add in another road, off the highway, but it hadn't been completed yet.

"Thomas?" I called out, trying to see if he could hear me. "Are you here?"

There were a few quiet noises, their exact location drowned out by the traffic not far away. Thomas didn't answer.

"Damn it, he better not have gotten himself killed." I held the necklace, a reflex I hadn't noticed I'd acquired. Then something in my brain clicked. The necklace… Duh. I could just use it to track the other one.

I took it off again, drawing a circle on the sidewalk. Murphy got out of the car, watching me, and I didn't think I had to explain what I was doing. I had no blood, just the object itself I was using as a homing device to its twin.

I spoke the same words of the finding spell breaking the circle with my foot, feeling the energy leave. It was very slight, but the pentacle glowed, pulling to the right. "Here's hoping he didn't get too far."

It didn't surprise me when I found myself walking into the construction area. There were a few half completed buildings here, but mostly rubble and the starting of a new street. If Ben was still chasing him, the less people around the better. The fact that I hadn't seen the possessed man in some time had me worried.

Murphy's near silent footsteps followed my own until I was near a pile of steel girders and around at what would be the frame of a buildings first floor.

"Look out!"

If I had been a little slower or not reacted to the voice coming from behind me, odds were I would have found myself on the wrong side of the lead pipe that slammed down from above.

I jumped back, seeing Ben on top of the metal beams, grinning down at me and laughing silent laughter in his throat. Murphy quickly drew her gun at my side and I reached over, turning it away.

"Stop. He's possessed. It's not his doing."

The distraction was all Ben needed, jumping down between us and knocking us both over. He was on Murphy in seconds, biting her forearm and trying to get the gun away from her. She made some sort of pained noise before turning and trying to kick him off.

"Forzare!" I yelled, brandishing my staff at him. Ben was thrown back twenty feet, not able to land correctly and spinning around in the dirt. It probably hurt like hell but I was more worried about Murphy.

She held her wrist to herself but it didn't look like she was bleeding that badly. She elbowed me when I got close, fixing her hair where it had flown in her face because of my spell. "Do _not_ do that again. I wasn't going to shoot him unless I had to."

I rubbed my leg where she had elbowed it, watching Ben pace around. His arm was bleeding badly and he had a few scrapes on one cheek. He wasn't looking at us anymore, searching the building to the side instead. Then he took off. Thomas was likely there, as he had been the one to warn me, though that hadn't sounded like where his voice had come from. He'd probably moved.

I took my staff and used it to make a circle in the dirt. Waving a hand to Murph, I beckoned her in. "I'll close it. That creature won't know it can't get in. If you need to shoot, it won't stop bullets, you just won't be protected anymore."

"I'm going with you." She kept her gun at her side, wiping her wrist off on her clothes. It wasn't bleeding enough to drip onto the gun and make her lose her grip.

"I'd like you if I were going after him. He's too fast. Thomas is over there somewhere and this worked before. I'm going to have him lead Ben over to us and trap him in a circle. I should be able to hold him there for a while, or at least long enough to question the thing possessing him."

It was reluctant but Murphy moved in the first circle and I closed it, sealing it with a slight will of energy. I made a larger one in front of her, hoping Thomas saw the second and didn't try to run beside her. Smacking into a wall of magic wouldn't be please and I didn't want him falling back into the second one. I left it open, just as before, and started waving my hands over my head at where Ben had last run off.

"Thomas, over here!" I wasn't sure how smart the spirit inside of Ben was, but I wasn't about to yell something like 'just like before' and tip him off.

I waited, not hearing anything for a while. After five minutes, I took in a few feet from the building and me. "Thomas!" I shouted louder, not sure if he hadn't heard me or if Ben had somehow gotten to him. There was no way a possessive dog spirit could take on a vampire. Not Thomas anyway, not one that knew what they were doing.

"Harry, you idiot."

I was bulldozed by my brother, barely catching sight of his dark hair before he pulled me back. I lost some of my air before I was dumped on the ground, near the unclosed part of my circle. Thomas hadn't bothered running around it, going through it as before and falling hard on the other side, trying to catch his breath. He was bleeding more than before, several long cuts on his chest and his arms. It looked like his shoulder wasn't sitting right where it was either, but I didn't look closer as Ben came bounding after us, metal pipe gone as he used his hands to run instead.

He was so fast. On the street, before, it had been about power and the ability to sprint. Once at a full run though, the possessing spirit seemed to be able to keep up the fast pace with little effort. He ran into the circle and I had to scramble to my feet and close it as fast as I could, quickly willing energy into it.

I was glad I had made it as big as I had or Ben would have reached the other side before I'd even had time to stand. I felt the snap of energy, quickly followed by the spirit pushing against my consciousness. I kept it up, feeling the primal angry and fear of the spirit inside, it's thrashing around and reckless endangerment of itself meaning the worst for Ben if let be. It took a long time for what was left of the spirits intelligence to take over as it calmed itself, pacing around inside the large cage of magic.

I let out a breath and stood, looking over at the other two.

Murphy had left the circle. I was sure she knew it had been safe to do so once Ben was trapped, but she'd gone over to Thomas. She was bending down beside him, Thomas looking up at her with fathomless white eyes. He was leaning up as if about to kiss her.

"Thomas!" I yelled.

Thomas snapped out of it first, shaking his head. He got to his feet, backing up from Murphy and moving towards me. Murph took a little while longer to get herself back together, shaking her head as if to clear it.

"Murphy, stay there." While a few dozen feet would do nothing to a White Court vampires power, at least it was something. I met Thomas's white eyes, seeing him still out of breath and a few of his wounds still open.

"I need to go, Harry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I told him. I knew how hard it was for him. "Thanks. I'm sorry I left you with Ben." I rubbed the back of my head. "Seems our summoner was closer than I thought. They got me pretty good."

"I didn't see anything besides you on the ground after Ben bent the door in. I'll talk to you about it later." Thomas waved over his shoulder, taking off at a jog. I wanted him to stay, wanted to help him, but I knew only feeding could really make a difference. I hoped he didn't do anything he'd regret later.

"That was…" I turned as Murphy got to her feet. I had to run over and catch her, careful she didn't fall into the circle holding Ben. "Sorry." She steadied herself. It didn't take her long. She looked in the caged man. "So what are you going to do now?"

"As the spirit to reveal itself. This might get a little dicey. I've never tried anything like this with only a circle in the dirt before. Stand back. I can't be watching out for him and you."

Murphy smiled and waved her gun a bit to show me it was still at her side. "As if I'd need someone like you to watch out for me." She moved back though and I waited a few minutes, taking calming breaths, and faced Ben when I was ready.

"Who are you? Watch do you want?" I had no way of commanding it without a name or some of my blood, but that was where luck had come in. Thanks to our encounter not an hour ago, Ben now had some of my blood inside of him. It wouldn't be able to resist my commands.

Ben growled, a noise his throat should not have been able to make. He shifted from his hands to his feet as if stuck between two choices. I commanded it again. "Who are you and what do you want!"

The growl was followed by a whimper. Ben's eyes faded for a moment before the man fell to the floor. On top of him stood the spectral form of a dog, a vicious mark around its throat as if it had been wearing a collar too tight for it for a long time. As it solidified a little more, all I could tell for sure was the animal had once been a dark color.

"Mortal," it growled. "How dare you take me away from my mission?"

"And just what is your mission?" I asked, my arms crossed. "I'm not letting you out of here, ever, if you don't tell me. I can reinforce this circle. You'll be trapped here."

The spectral dog snarled and took a few steps over Ben and closer to me. "You dare think you can contain me? I am much older than you and I have a job to do."

"Than answer my questions," I said back to it. "It shouldn't take you long and then I can let you go and you can be on your way. That doesn't mean I'm letting you have Ben back though."

The dog's eyes were hollow and translucent where the rest of it was like black smoke. It paced around a bit more, always watching me.

"Fine wizard," it agreed after a long time. "Your questions for my freedom and my assurance I will not touch this man again _for today_ ," the hound stress. That was better than I thought I would get from something that hadn't seemed half as sane as it was now.

"Deal," I agreed. I felt the magic of the agreement settle around us. "First, why have you been after Thomas?"

The hound grinned. "I have been summoned to fulfill a task."

I rolled my eyes. This was why I hated dealing with anything from another plain. "Okay, thanks for that vague answer. What task have you been summoned to fulfill?"

I could see the hound indicate behind itself to where Ben was laying. "To make that many pay for his transgressions. This is not the first time I have been asked of this. You though, are the first to have been able to find me out, and to have stopped me in such a way."

That was interesting. "What transgressions?"

The hound faced me once more, spectral teeth showing as it spoke without moving its mouth. "Love affairs, stealing, lies, whatever it is I find, I punish him for. Those have been my orders. I am to get rid of the item stolen, the person he is cheating, or force him out of lies he is telling. That is my role. You cannot keep my from my prey forever."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing. It took me longer than it should have to stop but I couldn't help it. I could sense the hound staring at me, anger building up behind the circle. I straightened, shaking my head slightly. "He's not cheating on anyone with Thomas. Can't you tell a vampire when you see one? It's hormones. Instinct. That's all. Thomas is here because of _me_. He's never met Ben before in his life. You should know that if you've been around as long as you say you have."

"Vampire?" the hound asked. This anger was covered with confusion. "I can't say I have run into many of their kind. I had wondered why this one was so much harder to kill. If what you say is true…" There was another growl. "This is my mistake, and I do not like making mistakes. If it is lie, you are dead, wizard."

"What reason would I have to lie? I was hired to follow Ben myself, and I needed Thomas's help. I know better than to lie to a creature like yourself." I had done it in the passed but it had always been seen through. I was pretty sure that the hound could tell I wasn't lying as well.

It lowered its head slightly. "I see. I will keep that in mind, wizard, and your comrade will not taste my teeth again unless I find out he crosses that line. I will rely on sight alone and remember beings like him have this power over you mortals."

"While we're on the subject of answering questions, tell me who summoned you?"

"This will be the last question, then you will free me."

I thought about that. I didn't have much else to ask the spirit, so I didn't see why not. I nodded and saw it nod as well.

"The same person who hired you."

I stared at it and blinked a few times. Ben's wife? But why? I'd been hired to see if he was cheating so why would she do that if she could simply summon something like this hound to do it instead? She has said others had dropped her case before. Had they, or had this thing killed them? Was it going to do that to me too, after it had killed Thomas?

"Free me!"

I let the wall of magic fall. I'd broken my word too much to add something like this to the list. The hound jumped at me, making me fall backwards, before bounding over my head and disappearing into what remained of the sunlight. I stared after it, confused.

"Harry?"

"That bitch!" I shouted as I got back to my feet. She had been using me. I was probably her witness. She wanted me to see her husband kill someone so that I could send him to jail. The others had probably all backed out because they hadn't expected to run into a murder, or had seen the way Ben had been. Of course she'd turned to me than, the only 'wizard' in the city, believing that I'd think it was Ben's doing and turn him over myself. She couldn't be so stupid not to know I would have seen through her little ruse.

I stomped over to Murphy's car, trying to calm down as she started asking me questions. I told her, in quick short words, of the conclusion that I came to. She got in soon after I did, starting the car and heading to the apartment I had just been at. She asked me for more clarification on the way and I gave her what I could.

Once outside, I stomped up to the apartment. I wasn't even sure if she was on the first or second floor, so, short of banging on the door, I looked at the nameplates. She was on the first floor and I wasted no more time with pleasantries. Murphy was by my side soon after, her gun hidden and likely in the back of her pants. I hadn't thought I'd need her but it wasn't as if I could stop Ms. Tyler on my own. I wasn't sure what she could be arrested for, but it had to be better than anything I could do. Attempted murder on her husband's girlfriends seemed a good way to go, if not lacking in proof.

Marlene opened the door, startled to see me standing there. I had to wonder if she'd been expecting the police instead.

"Mister Dresden, what are you doing here?"

"The dog," I asked instead. "The dead one. Was it yours? What kind of spell did you use on it? You really must be new to the world of magic. Do you know what happens when you cast these kinds of spells, Ms. Tyler?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. What spell?" She put a hand to her lip, her eyes confused and shining.

I sighed. I had been ready to go at her. It was so hard to get people to understand just what they did wrong. Marlene had been out rightly killing people with what magic she had learned. It wasn't something I could let continue. I didn't even know what victims she had, but the hound had compared Thomas to 'the others'. She wasn't doing this without knowledge of the consequences. "Witch, shaman, wiccan, I don't care what you think you are or what you're calling yourself. I _know_ you're using magic against your husband. I _know_ you've used it to kill people. There are laws against things like that, and while I'm not one of the ones who enforce them, I sure as hell can tell them where you are and what you're doing. Black magic isn't something you can hide. I felt it when I came up the stairs. You've been doing whatever ritual summoning in your back yard, haven't you?"

Her eyes widened more, a slight twitch that left her speechless for a moment.

"Ma'am, I do not like being used like this. Thankfully, your little puppy went after the wrong target. If it hadn't, we'd have another dead body. How many, exactly, have you had that thing kill?"

"I… I haven't had it kill anyone. I just told it to stop him." Marlene's eyes started to tear up and I had this sinking feeling in my gut.

"Stop him." I closed my eyes and rubbed one of them with the palm of my hand. "You hadn't said 'kill'. You weren't specific in you summoning. You have no idea what you were really doing, do you? Do you know what things like that dog do when you use vague terms like that? You should be lucky that Ben isn't the one that's dead, though I'm sure having that thing in his head so much has messed with him more than I can notice."

"I'm… I'm so sorry." She fell to her knees in front of me, staring up at me with wet, pleading eyes. "I didn't know it was doing that! I swear! Dead? There are people dead?"

My remaining anger vanished and I was left standing there, feeling like a royal jackass. Marlene Tyler hadn't meant to kill anyone. That didn't change the fact that she had. The police would be able to do nothing but I'd have to tell the White Council. They would likely kill her for her misuse of magic, as unknown to her as it was.

"I'm sorry." I moved passed Murph, hearing the woman start sobbing outright. Damn it, I hated cases like this. She had no idea what she was doing. There were probably a lot of people out there like her that had no idea what they were doing and what they could do. There were things out there who liked to use misguided people like her for their own means, young, foolish wizards who had no idea the creatures that were out there. I had fallen into a similar trap, young and naïve and desperate as I was at the time.

Someone had to do something about that, about all the wizards out there who were confused and had no one to teach them what was right and what was wrong. It was too bad there was no way to do that, to find those people.

I went home, feeling depressed. Ben was still out in that construction zone, probably awake by now and hurting from the spells I had to throw at him. I'd call Ebenezer tomorrow, tell him about Marlene. I also wondered who had knocked me out. I didn't think it had been Marlene, she was too clueless as to what was going on. Whoever it was, they were gone, and for now I was happy with my last bottle of Mac's ale as I sat by the fire in my apartment and lamented how messed up the world was.

And damn it, I was going to miss this month's rent.

Thomas came over the next day, after I made my phone call. He handed me an envelope with enough money in it to cover what Marlene said she'd pay me.

"I stopped over there, before I came here. I figured something like this might happen. She said she'd still like to pay you and gave this to me."

I didn't want to take the money. I wasn't sure what would happen to the woman because of me, but her actions had led to her downfall as well, as had the misconstrued way the council treated all new wizards. I pocketed the money. Just because I felt bad didn't mean I was willing to live out on the street for a while.

"Ahem," Thomas said, putting a closed hand to his lips. "I believe you owe me something in return too. You only figured this all out because of me. If I had been a woman he was cheating on, you both would have died and you know it."

I didn't, but I did owe Thomas. "Fine, what do you want?"

Thomas flashed a few tickets in front of me. "Come to a baseball game with me."

I choked on whatever noise my throat was trying to make at that. "What?"

"Baseball. You know, that thing that people throw around and try to hit with a bat? I didn't think you'd ever been to a game. I got some free tickets from a friend of mine and there's two extra, not counting the one for Justine. You can bring a friend too, if you want."

While it had been nearby, Thomas was right. I had never been to a game before. I smiled and took the two tickets he offered me. "That's what heck of a price you have."

"Isn't it? I think I'll be the first person in history who not only got you paid for a job you did, but got you out of this dingy place you call an apartment for the weekend."

That sad thing was, Thomas was probably right. I elbowed him, laughing a little.

"Thomas, you know what, I think we've both been fired."

Thomas laughed too. "I think we have been. Too bad, I kind of liked green."


End file.
